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Hmmm, that's the first I remember hearing about this April 2nd date, and about the cable companies not being able to fight the ruling until March 3rd. I guess that means we should start hearing a lot more about this over the next couple weeks.

Once Comcast finally loses the court battle, they'll switch all of the Sports Prgramming (Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies) from CSN Philly over to TCN. Just conjecture on my part.

It won't matter. The rule will simply be that Comcast has to make its sports programming available to satellite providers. So, if they move everything to TCN, than TCN will have to be the channel they provide to Directv. The only way around this for Comcast would be to offer their programming at insanely high prices. I'm not sure the legality of that though.

I believe that the FCC said that cable companies have to offer their cable only channels (like RSNs) to competitors (like D*) as prices comensurate with what other providers pay. For example, if Verizon pays Comcrap $0.20 per sub in the Philly market for CSN Philly HD, then I would guess that Comcrap would also have to offer CSN Philly HD to D* for a similar amount. Of course, since Verizon and Comcrap have 90% of the Philly market, D* won't have to pay Comcrap very much to start with. If D* ever gets CSN Philly HD, there will be a huge sucking sound of Comcrap customers to D*, I have a feeling.

I don't think Comcrap can try to gouge D* as part of a negotiation standpoint.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that it may take 10 or more years (from what I hear) for Verizon to get coverage all over the Philly market, where it could take days/weeks for a bunch more D* and E* dishes to pop up all over Philly?

Could be a very very busy time in the next few years to be a D* and E* installer around Philly.

Honestly, right now I think it's a paradigm thing within Comcast, because it doesn't make any sense to continue.

(off topic - I love the new Verizon FIOS TV ads attacking Xfinity. Quoting: "Same old Comcast, just a new name")

I have always heard that Senator Spector (the one who let them keep the loophole open) told them that Verizon is also one of his big campaign contributors and therefore unless they let Verizon have it he was going to have to pull his support ... I know we have no facts to prove this but it does seem to make sense to me ... so take it for what it is worth

the Point I was referring is that the loophole that comcast used was for satellite companies. When CSN philly started they didn't uplink it to a satellite they used lan lines to distribute the signal.

Thats the loophole that comcast was using all this time till FCC closed it.

With verizon not being a satellite company, any non satellite cable company in the philly area CSN had to provide the signal.

Unlike most other cable networks, CSN Philadelphia is distributed only via microwave and fiber optics. The infrastructure Comcast uses for this was left over from the now defunct PRISM Network. Since CSN Philadelphia does not uplink its signal to any satellite, Comcast was able to avoid an FCC regulation that requires most television channels to be offered to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies

here is a list of all cable companies in the pa nj de area that have CSN

Nope, Verizon is NOT a cable company. The technology and method of distribution is not the same as what actual cable companies use. Verizon uses fiber optic technology to deliver TV signals to its customers.

Why do you believe that Verizon is a cable company? If so, please explain in detail how the technology that Verizon uses is the same as what cable companies use.

the Point I was referring is that the loophole that comcast used was for satellite companies. When CSN philly started they didn't uplink it to a satellite they used lan lines to distribute the signal.

Thats the loophole that comcast was using all this time till FCC closed it.

With verizon not being a satellite company, any non satellite cable company in the philly area CSN had to provide the signal.

Unlike most other cable networks, CSN Philadelphia is distributed only via microwave and fiber optics. The infrastructure Comcast uses for this was left over from the now defunct PRISM Network. Since CSN Philadelphia does not uplink its signal to any satellite, Comcast was able to avoid an FCC regulation that requires most television channels to be offered to direct broadcast satellite (DBS) companies

here is a list of all cable companies in the pa nj de area that have CSN

I think we all already knew all of this. There have been dozens of threads over the years detailing the specifics of the satellite loophole. Let's hope this dumb rule ends soon and we see these current 'cable-only' channels on other providers (like D* and E*) soon.

Nope, Verizon is NOT a cable company. The technology and method of distribution is not the same as what actual cable companies use. Verizon uses fiber optic technology to deliver TV signals to its customers.

Why do you believe that Verizon is a cable company? If so, please explain in detail how the technology that Verizon uses is the same as what cable companies use.

You limit cable companies to those who do, what, copper? Gee, Comcast delivers fiber to my door and did so before Fios started its first cable system. Does that make them NOT a cable company? What, Fios uses an addressable router to deliver TV? Gee, what about the switched video that Comcast and others use? What about the in-the-clear channels Fios delivers?

Fios is a cable company who pumps their fiber optics. Like I said, hype.

Cable companies are connected by a CABLE. What is a fiber optic? A fiber optic CABLE. Satellite companies are connected via a satellite.

Nope, Verizon is NOT a cable company. The technology and method of distribution is not the same as what actual cable companies use. Verizon uses fiber optic technology to deliver TV signals to its customers.

Why do you believe that Verizon is a cable company? If so, please explain in detail how the technology that Verizon uses is the same as what cable companies use.

However, they do use the same 256QAM system that cable providers use to get their signal to the IRDs in the people homes. I think of Verizon much like I think of Comcast, TWC, etc. ATT U-Verse is an IPTV system, if Verizon every changes to IPTV, their bandwidth would be almost limitless